In recent years, projective techniques have become useful and versatile for the study of consumers' perceptions, attitudes, motivations and needs. Despite its effectiveness and scope, there are still no reports of its use for the analysis of risk perception and food safety, especially in dairy products. Among them, the Story Completion technique stands out, where the participant is presented with the beginning of a story, phrase, arguments or images and he is invited to give an outcome to that situation. In this sense, this study aimed to assess the perception of participants from different regions of Brazil about cheeses (of dubious origin) sold in street markets. Through an online questionnaire, a convenience sample of 300 participants answered demographic questions, and were then introduced to a story about a recent dairy trader at the fair who approached a couple and offered them a “fresh cheese” made with milk from the farm of “your neighbor”, inviting them to freely complete the story. The responses obtained were divided into two dimensions, with the objective of identifying whether or not to buy the product and the factors that made them reach this decision, thus tracing their perception of risk (high for those who would not buy and low for those who would buy it). The terms cited as reason for buying or not buying were: 1) Yes (low risk perception - purchase) sensory aspects, solidarity to the producer, origin / safety, quality, price, nostalgia, technological aspects, hedonism / appreciation, other factors; 2) No (high risk perception - no purchase) lack of certification, origin, dangers, conservation, quality / risks, sensory aspects despite the terms mentioned, they did not show a significant variation (global and chi-square per cell test) between regions in the most cited categories. It is concluded that consumers in general, have low perception of risk when dealing with dairy products of doubtful origin. Additionally, even if little used, the technique proved to be quite effective for the study of consumer perception, especially in the assessment of risks and food safety.